


A Phoenix and a Dragon, Sitting on a Rooftop

by Living_a_double_life (zurzavaravar)



Category: The Thundermans
Genre: College AU, F/M, Future Fic, Incest, Sibling Incest, Slow Burn, Twincest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-14 01:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14125302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zurzavaravar/pseuds/Living_a_double_life
Summary: K-i-s-s-i-n-g.Metroburg gets a new protector. But where there are superheroes, there must also be supervillains. Thundercest.





	1. So Here's What You Missed on The Thundermans

**Author's Note:**

> There aren't nearly enough fics for this pairing, so I had to write one. I fully intend to finish this, but I'm a bit all over the place when it comes to writing, so updates may be slow.  
> Feel free to leave a review, and I hope you'll enjoy :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This first chapter basically ended up as all exposition, but there will eventually be an actual story. Not much thundercest in this one, but there will be by the third chapter or so.  
> Thanks for reading :)

Phoebe realized early on that if she really wanted to make it as a superhero, she would need to keep her identity a secret, even from her family. She couldn’t have Thunder Man swooping in to save the day, or Electress frying her enemies. She had to do it all on her own.

(Okay, so maybe she wouldn’t have minded to do it with Max. But he was still dead set on becoming the greatest supervillain of all time and taking over the world, so she had to accept that the two of them were never going to fight crime together as a team.)

Her first step was to move out of the house. This part was relatively easy; her parents all but pushed her and Max out the door, happy to have two less children to worry about, even if neither of them went to Hero University, like they had hoped. Max, unsurprisingly, went to Villain University, while Phoebe told her parents she wanted to live like an ordinary girl for a little while longer and go to Metroburg College. At first, Hank and Barb weren’t too enthusiastic about the idea, but after she promised them she would still eventually become a superhero, they agreed.

Her next step involved patience. A lot of patience. She figured even her parents – who could admittedly be a little slow sometimes – would take notice of a telekinetic, fire- and ice-breathing superhero appearing on the horizon right after their daughter, who had the same abilities, went off to college. So, she spent the next six months laying low: moving into her dorm room, attending classes, going to a few college parties (of course, she was still good-girl-Phoebe, so that didn’t mean much). Waiting.

It wasn’t so bad – by some inconceivable stroke of luck, Cherry graduated from high school with grades good enough for her to be accepted to Metroburg College, and the two girls managed to become roommates, which meant that Phoebe didn’t have to worry about using her superpowers in their dorm room, since Cherry already knew everything (well, almost everything).

(She didn’t know that Phoebe didn’t have to go to the gym every day for hero training, like she said. Phoebe only told her that to create an alibi for herself, in case the city suddenly needed saving. She figured if she disappeared every day, right from the start of the two of them living together, it would seem less suspicious that she was never around when anything superhero-related happened. She still went to the gym two or three times a week – she needed to stay in shape, after all – but the rest of the time she usually just went to the library to study and waste a few hours.)

(She also didn’t know that in the two days Phoebe had on her own, before Cherry moved in to their dorm room, she cut her long, brown curls off and dyed her remaining hair blonde. Then, she carefully collected all the locks to have a wig made, which she wore day and night, only taking it off when Cherry couldn’t see. She hoped that if her super alter ego had short, blonde hair, the possibility of anyone connecting her to Phoebe Thunderman would be even smaller. And it was easier to take off a wig than to put one on every time she had to kick some evil ass.)

Phoebe even managed to convince herself that she enjoyed experiencing life like all other college freshmen (it was fun to share a tiny room with another person, use a communal bathroom every day, and have no money for anything, including food), and didn’t mind seeing other superheroes save the world, while she sat around doing nothing.

She kept her spirits up by fantasizing about all the things she was going to do once she finally had the chance. She also made herself a new costume (which took a surprisingly long time to do). She couldn’t decide what color it should be, it felt strange to wear anything other than blue and orange. In the end, she went with all the colors combined – white.

Once she thought she had waited long enough, she took off her wig, put her mask and costume on, and visited President Kickbutt. She remembered feeling terrified that after six months, the president of the Hero League would instantly recognize her, ruining her plans and everything she had waited for. But thankfully, she didn’t.

Though she was surprised to see an unknown hero entering her office, after Phoebe explained that she wanted to gain some real experience of being a superhero, without the expectations and the pressure that revealing her true identity would undoubtedly place upon her shoulders, the president agreed to help her in doing her job and remaining anonymous, even from her.

She did make Phoebe go through a series of tests first, ranging from hand-to-hand combat to general behavior, but after Phoebe proved she was worthy, Kickbutt was happy to hand her a cape, as white as the rest of her costume, and access to superhero weapons.

But before giving them to her, she told Phoebe to wait a little before jumping into action, to give her time to arrange things with other local superheroes and appoint an area for her to protect. She wrote her number down (Phoebe bought a new phone to be used specifically for hero business) and said she would give her a call when the time came.

And so, Phoebe waited. Again.

And life went on – an endless stream of classes, exams and even a few parties, courtesy of Cherry’s instant popularity on campus.

With the winter nearing its end, she didn’t have much else to do but study for her midterms, which kept her busy, and her mind off of that long-awaited call from President Kickbutt which never seemed to come. But after she finished her exams, she didn’t have anything else to do but think about it.

She went home for spring break, but mostly stayed in her room, waiting for the phone to ring, and growing more and more disappointed each day when it didn’t. She barely saw her family, she only came down from her room to eat. Then her mom knocked on her door one afternoon, asking what was wrong – and Phoebe lied. She said she was upset because her boyfriend had broken up with her on the last day of term.

(Well, it wasn’t technically a lie. She did kind of have a boyfriend.

Even though most of the time Phoebe was too preoccupied with her superhero career, or rather, the lack thereof, to go on dates, she did meet one cute guy at one of the parties Cherry dragged her to.

He was standing in the corner of the room, awkwardly holding a drink and wearing an MKTO T-shirt – Phoebe couldn’t not approach him. His name was Greg. The two of them dated for a few weeks, but neither was too invested in the relationship, so they eventually decided to call it quits, not long before spring break started. Phoebe didn’t mind much.)

And even though she had a good reason to, she felt bad for lying to her family, especially when, from that day onwards, they all did everything they could to make her feel better.

Chloe brought all her dolls into Phoebe’s room to throw giant tea parties, where sadness was not allowed. Nora offered to “laser some sense into that jerkface,” and when Phoebe declined, she gave her one of her bows for consolation. Billy ran around the world to bring her gifts (a tanzanite bracelet from South Africa and exotic sea shells from Hawaii). Hank brought her food and tried to cheer her up with jokes. Barb sat quietly on the edge of her bed, gave her a bowl of ice cream, and told her she deserved better than a guy who would dump her like that.

And that just made Phoebe feel even worse.

Her whole family was so sweet to her because they thought she was recovering from the end of a serious (non-existent) relationship with her first college boyfriend, and she couldn’t even act like she was starting to get over it. She wanted to, but whenever she tried to conjure up a smile, her mind immediately wandered back to President Kickbutt – what if she wasn’t calling because she found out it was Phoebe and didn’t think she deserved to be superhero?

So, she just kept pretending.

Max didn’t come home for spring break.

(Apparently, he got a great job working for some big financial firm in the city. A job so great, in fact, that he was able to buy an apartment all by himself and move out of his college dorm. Phoebe would have been jealous if she would have been able to care about anything besides self-pity.)

But he did spend one weekend at home.

The rest of the family went to visit their grandmother in Metroburg to celebrate her 70th birthday. Phoebe didn’t go with them, preferring to stay at home, sulk, and wonder why life just couldn’t give her this one thing. (She had waited so long, she planned and she prepared and she did everything she could, so why couldn’t President Kickbutt just call her already??)

She couldn’t actually be sure, but she guessed it was her mother who had called Max to come home, not wanting to leave Phoebe all alone.

So, on the last Saturday of spring break, Phoebe was woken up at 9 a.m. by someone shaking her and calling her name. She turned over in bed and mumbled a few incoherent words along the lines of: “Go away… Tired… Max…! Not now…”

“Wake up, Dweebs!” Another shake.

With a groan, Phoebe turned her head slightly, and opened her left eye to look up at Max.

“What do you want?”

“Well, the others have just left to go to grandma’s.”

“So?” Phoebe closed her left eye again.

“So, we have the whole place to ourselves.”

“I still don’t see why I need to be awake.”

“Oh, come on, Pheebs, just have a little fun! It’s been two weeks, are you seriously still upset over some stupid guy?”

“Who told you about that?” Phoebe asked, her eyes snapping open, suddenly feeling a lot more awake. She didn’t know why, but the idea of Max thinking she was this depressed by a(n imaginary) guy dumping her made her feel strange. Probably because she didn’t want him to tease her for being too emotional.

(Also… two weeks?? Where the hell was President Kickbutt?)

“Well, let’s see… Billy, Nora, dad, mom, Chloe, Mrs. Wong, the mail delivery guy…”

“Very funny, Max.” Phoebe paused. Even though she wasn’t really upset because of a break-up, Max might actually have been right (for the first time in their lives). She had spent enough time sulking, it was time to get on with her life, President Kickbutt be damned. (It’d still be nice to finally get that call and become a real superhero, though.)

“What did you have in mind?” she asked, but wary of his general idea of ‘fun,’ she added, “I won’t take part in anything illegal.”

“Calm down, I wasn’t planning anything illegal.”

“Then what _were_ you planning?”


	2. Saving People, Stopping Crime. The Family Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's the second chapter because I couldn't wait to upload more of this. It's still mostly set-up, but it features Max a bit more. There'll be more Max/Phoebe stuff in later chapters, I promise.   
> Thanks for reading :)

“Take that, you evil asshole!” Phoebe exclaimed, dealing another blow to her opponent’s head. The man fell to the ground, his hands covering his face. “Who’s the loser now?”

“All right, I give up.”

“Really?” Phoebe was still gasping for breath from the fight, her face dripping with sweat.

“Nope,” the man jumped up again, facing her. “Oh, and in case you were wondering: the loser’s still you.”

He kicked her leg out from under her, her head hitting the ground, and held her down.

One, two, three seconds passed. She struggled to push him off. Six seconds. His grip was too strong, she couldn’t break free. Ten seconds.

_Game over._

“I win!”

She could hear the triumphant smirk in Max’s voice, even though she couldn’t see his face yet. She groaned.

“Only because you’ve played this before,” she said, taking off her glasses. It felt strange to look around in their living room and not see the darkness of the magic forest anymore, where the game took place. “Wow, it’s scary how realistic this game actually is.”

“Scarier than how bad you are at it?” Phoebe elbowed him in the stomach. “Ow!”

“Shut up, Max.”

“I’m just saying: you were way too easy to defeat, for a supposed superhero.”

“Took you long enough.” She glanced at the clock: the long hand was just nearing the short one, which was resting at number 12. “We’ve been playing for almost 3 hours.”

“Well, you know what they say: time flies when you’re pretending to have fun to cheer up your twin sister,” Max grinned.

“Wait. Did you just admit that you came here to cheer me up?”

“No.”

“Yes, you did! Aw, Max, you do care about my feelings!

“No, I don’t,” he said reflexively, but then he looked at her and sighed. “Fine, I did come here to cheer you up, but only because mom asked me to.”

Now it was Phoebe’s turn to grin. Though Max would never admit it, he did have a heart, and it was nice to see him show it sometimes. And, truth be told, his stupid video game did make her feel a lot better. Playing a badass warrior princess and fighting Max’s evil overlord for the last 3 hours made her realize that she was fit to become a superhero, no matter what President Kickbutt or anyone else thought.

(And it’s only been two weeks, Kickbutt could still call her at any minute. It seemed a bit irrational now, how upset she’d been. Still, becoming a superhero was her lifelong dream, so worrying about it never happening was understandable.)

“Well, thanks anyway,” she said, grateful to him for (literally and figuratively) beating some sense into her.

Max shrugged. “It’s okay. Gave me a chance to play with someone who was actually a challenge. Not _much_ of a challenge, but…”

She rolled her eyes. Then, her stomach grumbled, leading to the realization that she hadn’t even had breakfast yet today.

“Do you wanna go get something to eat?” she asked. “I heard Wong’s has a new special.”

“Sure, why not.” But, because he was a smug jerk who just couldn’t help himself, he added, “I’d hate to beat you again, anyway, after all that trouble I’ve gone through to make you feel good about yourself.”

“Oh, that’s it! We’re ordering takeout. And trust me, this time, I’m kicking your ass.”

“Bring it on, Dweebs! There’s no way I’ll ever lose to _you_.”

“You’re right, you won’t be losing to _me_ : you’ll be losing to Princess Cassandra, protector of the Eastern Kingdom.”

She grinned at him, her eyes challenging him to another fight.

He accepted it.

 

* * *

 

After spring break, Phoebe went back to college, feeling a lot less stressed about President Kickbutt. When the time comes, she will call. (Or at least that’s what she told herself.)

And, after three weeks and six days (not like she was counting), the time finally came.

Cherry, who was used to Phoebe’s sudden outbursts by now, didn’t even bat an eyelash when one Friday afternoon Phoebe jumped up from her bed like she had been bitten by a radioactive spider.

“This is it!” she exclaimed loudly, referring to the ringing phone on her nightstand. It was her hero phone. “It’s really happening!”

“Good for you, Pheebs,” Cherry mumbled, not even looking up from her phone – she was in the middle of flirting with a cute guy over text.

Phoebe was too excited to be offended by her friend’s obvious lack of interest, though she couldn’t have told Cherry what ‘it’ was, even if she had been interested. For ‘it’ was the long-anticipated phone call from President Kickbutt, leader of the Hero League, giving her the final seal of approval to become a superhero, and appointing an area of Metroburg for her to protect.

Phoebe fumbled to grab the phone. “Hello? Yes. Yes! Of course. Thank you! Bye.”

And so, after six months, three weeks and six days, she was now officially a protector of Metroburg, getting ready for her first assignment as a real superhero.

 

* * *

 

The assignment? Three bandits, who were currently trying to rob a bank downtown, all of them armed, according to the security camera footage shown on the news. President Kickbutt told her that in situations like this, catching the bad guys only came second to her primary objective – to rescue the civilians before anyone got hurt.

So, Phoebe snuck away (“Cherry, I’m going to the gym.” “That’s great, Pheebs.”), found an abandoned alley near the bank, took off her wig and put on her costume. Even though this wasn’t the first time she had worn a superhero outfit, today it felt different. As she put on her mask, she was filled with a strange kind of determination and confidence. She was born to do this.

She put her stuff in her backpack and hid it behind an old, dirty dumpster (she was going to need a more sanitary hiding place), then took off running towards the bank.

Inside the building, she saw one of the men put his gun down as he started shoving money into a large duffel bag. The other two kept their weapons trained on the crowd of people gathered in a corner, shaking in fear.

A few of them noticed her, but she quickly put her hand to her lips, signaling to them to keep quiet.

First, she used her telekinesis to lift the gun off the ground silently and point it at the largest of the three men, who seemed to be the leader. The other two were more of a challenge. She didn’t want to risk them pulling the trigger and shooting someone while she was trying to get the guns out of their hands, so, while keeping one weapon in the air with her left, she used her right hand to turn the men towards each other, so fast they didn’t even have time to blink before they were holding each other at gunpoint.

The surprised yelps of his two lackeys at losing control over their bodies alerted the third man to the situation. He turned around abruptly, but noticing the gun floating in mid-air, pointing at him, he stopped.

Phoebe entered the building through the automatic door.

“If you don’t want me to shoot you, don’t even think about moving,” she warned the three men.

Then, she turned to the civilians.

“Go,” she said to them. “The paramedics should be arriving any minute, along with the police – they’ll take care of whatever you need.”

She waited until they all safely left the bank before she turned back to the bandits.

“Drop the bag,” she told the tall one. He did. “Drop the guns,” she said to the other two. They did. “Go stand over there,” she told them, nodding towards the corner. They did.

Once they were all standing close together, she froze them with her freeze breath, creating three ice statues ready for the police. Then, she grabbed the bag full of money and walked out of the building, heading straight for one of the many policemen gathered outside.

“This is all the money they tried to steal,” she told him, handing him the bag. “They’re all inside. They should defrost in a couple of hours.”

Before the man even had the chance to close his open mouth, she walked away.

 

* * *

 

“Phoebe, have you heard?” Cherry asked when she got back to their room.

“Heard what?”

“Apparently, there’s a new superhero in town. No one knows who she is, but she just saved thirty people from a bank robbery. Isn’t that exciting?”

“Yeah,” Phoebe said, attempting to keep calm, but screaming on the inside: she had just completed her first superhero assignment, successfully. She captured three bad guys. People were talking about her. This was a lot to take in, especially with the adrenaline still running through her veins. She didn’t do much physically, but the stress of the situation and the incredible power and responsibility she felt, knowing that people’s lives depended on her, made her heart beat as fast as Doctor Colosso’s.

“I mean, how long has it been since we had an entirely new superhero?” Cherry seemed really excited.

“I don’t know.”

“A very long time! We don’t even know what her superhero name is!” Phoebe cringed internally at that.

(The truth was, she hadn’t managed to come up with a good enough name so far. No matter what name she thought of, nothing could quite measure up to her real name – she was Thunder Girl and she always would be. How could she find a name that fit her as well as her true one? She just hoped this problem would resolve itself soon, otherwise people were going to wonder why her alter ego didn’t have a name, like all other superheroes. Maybe she could ask President Kickbutt to give her a name.)

“Or what her powers are! Although, I heard Leah from my art class say that she has telekinesis.”

“Does she?” Phoebe tried to sound interested. Well, no. She _was_ interested, but less in what Cherry was saying, and more in how much her friend knew, and whether she had connected this mystery superhero to Phoebe.

“Yeah! Wait.” Cherry looked at her with wide eyes. “You have telekinesis, too.” Oh, no. She knew. And if Cherry knew, President Kickbutt must have known as well, and her parents were going to… “Do you know her?”

“What?”

“Well, didn’t you use to go to a superhero school with other kids who had similar abilities to you?”

“No!” Why did that sound so defensive?

“But you said…”

“I meant yes, but… no, I don’t know her. Sorry, Cherry, but the only person I know – other than me, of course –, who has telekinesis is Max, and Max can’t possibly be this new superhero, since Max obviously isn’t a girl, and… I mean, he would never wear a costume like that, anyway… And he’s a villain, so it’s not like—”

“Okay, I get it, you don’t know her,” Cherry stopped her rambling (thank God). “It’d be cool if you did, though.”

“Yeah. Cool,” Phoebe mumbled, feeling a sudden urge to hit her head against the wall repeatedly. From now on, she would probably have to suffer through many other conversations like this, without revealing her identity. Oh God. What had she gotten herself into?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the Marvel reference, I couldn't help myself. :D


End file.
